SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG
Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's
Chapter Four: Glyphic Canyon
In a deserted area far away from the city, Shadow found himself waking up in the entrance of many ruins. "Where am I?" Shadow asked as he rubbed his throbbing head. Shadow walked up to the end of a tall hillside to see the entire ruin area. "Whoa… I guess I underestimated his powers. There is a reason Black Doom brought me here and I have to find out what." Shadow said as he ran off into the ruins.
As he made his way deeper into the ruins, a Black Arms soldier jumped out in front of him and aimed its gun at his forehead. The creature was about to fire when it was tackled to the ground by a red blur. Shadow took a closer look to see that it was Knuckles who was beating the alien soldier to a pulp. Knuckles got up from his defeated enemy and looked back to his old friend, Shadow.
"Hey Shadow. I haven't seen you in a while." Knuckles said. "Knuckles, what are you doing here?" questioned Shadow. "Well, Angel Island was attack and these black creatures tried to steal the Master Emerald. But I was able to keep it safe. I followed these creatures to these ruins. What are you doing here, Shadow?" Knuckles asked. "I'm not sure." Shadow said to him. "What, how can you not be sure?" Knuckles asked. Shadow was about to reply when they heard gunshots and people shouting. "Sounds like trouble. Come on, Shadow" Knuckles said as he ran off with Shadow close behind.
When Shadow and Knuckles arrive at the scene of the battle, the Black Arms were fighting the G.U.N. soldier with their new work-like alien, the Black Annelid. "Keep your distance men!" The leader shouted as he shot down another Black Warrior (Black Arms soldier). Shadow walks up to leader causally and asks "Do you need any help?" Shadow asked. The G.U.N. leader looked at Shadow and aimed his gun at him, which surprised Shadow. "Sorry, but I have orders to destroy. I really don't want to do this." The leader said and readied himself to pull the trigger and kill him.
But he was interrupted when he heard a scream of terror from one of the soldiers. Everyone looked over to find one of the G.U.N. soldiers about to be eaten by the Black Annelid. All seemed hopeless for the soldier until a black blur went past the worm and its head was severed from the rest of its body. The almost-killed soldier looked to his savior to Shadow standing next to him. Shadow looked over to the G.U.N. leader as he spoke into his portable communicator.
"Attention all units, front line enemies have been defeated. Proceed to the inner section of the ruins and take out all enemy forces." The leader commanded. The leader stared at Shadow, who stared back, and then grabbed his communication once more. "And if you see Shadow, assist him I anyway possible." The leader added to his previous command. The leader smiled to the black hedgehog. "Go. We'll take care of things from here." The leader told him. Shadow nodded his head and said "Thank you. Come on, Knuckles." "Right behind you!" Knuckles shouted as he ran after Shadow.
After a long and difficult trudge through rubble, sand and strange tornados, Shadow and Knuckles reached a temple filled with Black Warriors and Black Annelids. "This doesn't look like it's going to be easy." Knuckles said out loud. "When is it ever easy?" Shadow returned. "What do you say to a little contest?" Knuckles offered. "What kind of contest?" Shadow asked. "Who ever takes out the most black creatures, wins." Knuckles explained. "You're on." Shadow accepted.
Knuckles was the first to strike as he jumped on to the first Black Warrior he could reach and landed a solid blow to the face, crushing it. Another Black Warrior ran towards Knuckles and swung its energy sword at him. Knuckles jumped to avoid the sword, only to be hit by a laser blast in the shoulder. Knuckles fell to the ground and saw a large group of Black warriors surrounding him. "Don't think I'm out just yet!" Knuckles shouted as he put on his shovel claws and dug a hole underneath them.
The Black Warriors wasted no time in firing down the hole Knuckles went. They halted their attack and waited to see if they had killed him or not. But while they were waiting, the ground started to crack and form a circle around the small group. Knuckles the chose to appear above ground and the Black warrior aimed their guns at him. Knuckles smirked for a moment before plowing the ground with his fist. The cracked circle had become complete with Knuckles attack and the ground below the aliens gave way and the fell through.
"Well they didn't last long." Knuckles said as he looked down the hole he had made. "How are you doing Shadow?" Knuckles asked his competition. Knuckles looked over to Shadow's side to find the Black Warriors and Annelids were beaten, fried, skewered, chopped and just plain dead. He saw Shadow leaning over one of the temple statues and asked "How did you do all this?" Shadow pulled out the green chaos emerald and Knuckles said "Hey, that's cheating." "You never said anything about not using chaos emeralds." Shadow told Knuckles, who said nothing after he realized he had been out smarted (what a surprise.)
Shadow walked up to a strange green stone with other stone rings surrounding it. "I'm going to go look for a way out of this place. What about you Shadow?" Knuckles asked. "I think I'll stay here for a moment." Shadow said. Knuckles just shrugged and started to walk away. Shadow continued to stare at the strange stone, entranced by it. "I see you find this stone interesting, Shadow" Shadow looked back to see Doom's Eye floating a few feet from him.
"What is so special about this stone?" Shadow asked. "This particular stone is part of a pair that can awaken our flying fortress from its sleep." Black Doom explained. "Sleep?" said the confused hedgehog. "Have you not noticed? This temple is alive and I need you to activate the stones to awaken it." Black Doom explained. Shadow began to walk away and said "I told you, I take orders from no one."
"Do you not want to find out the truth of your creation? I though you would be more interested in the reason you were created. I will leave you to decide." Black Doom said before his eye floated away. During Black Doom's speech, Shadow had stop to think for a moment. He wanted to find out the reason he was created, but was it worth losing his friends over. Shadow looked back at the stone once more, coming to a decision.
A few minutes later, Shadow was walking alongside Knuckles, who had managed to find an exit that lead to the upper shrine. Knuckles looked at the shrine and said "This reminds me of the Master Emerald shrine back on Angel Island. Great, now I'm getting homesick." Shadow made no reply. As the duo walked closer to the shrine, they were attacked by five more Black Annelids. "These guys don't give up do they?" Knuckles said out loud.
The Black annelids then burrowed their way underground, leaving Knuckles worried. "Where did they go?" Knuckles asked. Shadow then felt a small tremor below his feet and push Knuckles and himself out of the way before the annelids struck. Knuckles fell on his face, while Shadow landed perfectly on his feet and was getting angry. "I have had enough of you black freaks!" Shadow shouted. Knuckles saw his body beginning to glow red quickly ran to find himself a place to hide. The Annelids moved in closer as Shadow shouted "CHAOS BLAST!!!"
The red glow from Shadow's body released itself and created a huge explosion, which destroyed all the Black Annelids. After the attack was finished, Shadow had collapsed to his knees and Knuckles tried to help him up. "Wow that was some attack. When did you learn to do that?" Knuckles asked him. "Right here…just now." Shadow replied breathlessly. Knuckles pulled Shadow up the shrine and laid him next to a stone similar to the one in the lower level.
After Shadow took a few moments to regain his strength, he weakly managed to get back on his feet. Shadow then found a yellow chaos emerald land in his hand and looked up to see it was Knuckles who threw it to him. "I found it a little while back, I think you deserve it after the way you helped everyone today." Knuckles said to him. Shadow turned himself away from Knuckles and said "That's right. I did help everyone. Even Black Doom." Shadow said out loud. "WHAT?!" Knuckles shouted in surprise.
Shadow used his super speed to elbow Knuckles in the gut hard to knock him out. "Sorry Knuckles, but I don't want you to get hurt." Shadow said as he grabbed Knuckles and ran to one of the near by mountains. Shadow laid Knuckles on the ground and ran back to the temple. Once there, Shadow placed his hand on the green stone and activated it. Just as Black Doom said, the temple came to life and started to move itself off the ground.
"I guess Black Doom was telling the truth after all. This place really is alive" Shadow said. Just then Black Doom had appeared out of nowhere and this time he was the real thing. "So we finally meet Shadow." Black Doom said. "So what do you want me to do now…Master?" Shadow said, struggling with the last part. "You need to find the last four more emeralds to complete our plans." Black Doom told him. "Do you know where they are?" Shadow asked. "I know three places where the fourth emerald might be. Don't fail me." Black Doom threatened as he used chaos control to transport Shadow to a new location.
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